By Mary and David Lowther
If Lord Tennyson can be believed, in spring a young man’s fancy turns to love. With the vernal equinox upon us it is time for the wise gardener of the female persuasion to decide just what feats of drudgery must be performed to win her approval. It’s not just the Boy Scouts who need to be prepared.
The Super Bowl is over and baseball doesn’t start until April, so the time has come to send your tolerably good looking prince on a quest to find a pile of aged dragon guano (although chicken is almost as good) to spread at your feet. Tell him it is part of an ancient Sumerian fertility rite that you’ll explain once he finishes digging it in.
After all, Heracles’ fifth labour was cleaning out a stable, so this falls well within the parameters for heroic deeds. Since the other 11 challenges involved killing or capturing horrific beasts, your bold knight can logically also be sent to repair the fence that keeps out the horde of ravening rabbits, dreadful deer and enormous elk while you plant your crop in the freshly fertilized bed. This, incidentally, completes that Sumerian ritual. Tradition is important.
Gardening can be very companionable, but remember that someone has to be in charge and his time is too important to waste on mere scheduling and work jurisdiction. That’s why one needs to decide just what must be done and whose job it is to do it. Are there trellises to be prepared? Are there gluttonous gastropods creeping up on our helpless seedlings that must be repelled, even destroyed? Now is the hour to determine our needs and priorities, so we can share that information with the staff. Sorry, I meant the prince.
Promising the moon and stars is romantic, but they have little practical use for a grower who values full sunlight. Flowers bloom longer when left unpicked, and a girl can find her own chocolate in bulk at the Country Grocer. What a garden goddess wants is une pied a terre where vegetables and fruit can flourish, and springtime is the perfect season to show her just how greatly she is valued. If it isn’t obvious by now you might take the radical approach of asking her how.
For those who must do it for themselves I offer my condolences, but it is still that time of year and every grower has work to do. As winter ends we look forward to warmer times ahead, a little hard work and the satisfaction of our own, fresh picked fruit and vegetables.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.